The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by former BJP leader K N Govindacharya who has raised questions on the usage of social media by government departments. (Reuters photo)
The Delhi High Court today asked the government why it was "hiding" the contracts it has with social media sites like Facebook and Google and has not submitted them despite orders issued five months ago.
"Why are you not filing them (contracts)? Why are you hiding them from us? Why aren't you placing it? What is the hesitation? Why aren't you doing it? It's been five months since our May 7, 2015 direction," judges asked the Centre.
The court's observations come amid criticism of the government's policies on privacy and rights of citizens online. Last month the government had withdrawn a draft policy on data encryption after widespread outrage.
On May 7, the Centre had sought time to place before the court the "exact nature of the contracts" which it has entered with the social media companies. In a subsequent hearing on July 30, the government had again sought more time.
Today, the judges asked, "What do the contracts say? Because we have a lot to say on that."
In response to the court's query, the government counsel said the Centre has "standard contracts" with the sites and they are "not tailor-made".
To this, the bench responded, "that is exactly what he (petitioner) wants to say". The court was hearing a public interest litigation filed by former BJP leader K N Govindacharya who has raised questions on the usage of social media by government departments.
The court, however, directed the Centre to ensure that the contracts it has pertaining to Facebook, YouTube and WhatsApp be filed before the next date of hearing on October 28, so that the matter can be decided finally.
Lawyer Virag Gupta, appearing for Mr Govindacharya, told the court that the "central government has become the biggest marketing agent for social media sites".